Second Long Day

Our 2nd day of the the two longest days of the week is over. It was another near marathon day as we worked from 7 AM til 9 PM again yesterday. The day didn't seem near as long as the hours indicated though as we do the pour service (for tea and coffee) at each meal and get to enjoy each meal for about 1 1/2 hours. That's over 4 hours a day taken out in the dining room and makes for a nice break 3 times a day.

It was a day that was heavy with sales activity for me (with Charlie) and heavy operations training for Josie (with Terri). We both are getting into the flow of our assignments and so far are enjoying the ride. We had an ecall near the end of the day which turned out to be a false alarm when a lady accidentally pulled the emergency cord in her apartment. It was a good drill for us, even though it wasn't a real emergency.

The other couple comes back from their 2 days off today so it will be interesting to see how we all function together in our office. They don't come on until 11 AM, so there won't be much overlap in our day. We get off work at 3 PM today and it will be nice to do some more work in organizing our apartment. We haven't done any more work on the apartment since Saturday and there are still a few boxes that need to be emptied and some items that need to be put away.

Another objective for us with some extra time this afternoon is to catch up on assignments that are carryovers from our training class. There are some lessons that need too be completed in the first 7 days of employment at the Community and we haven't had a chance to do any of that yet. There hasn't been a dull moment yet...

Into the Real World

The schedules are set up so that one management couple works 2 really long days to cover for the other (Jamie and Rob) that has those days off each week. They are the couple that are here as floaters to cover the time before we arrived. They will go away in a couple weeks and it will be just Josie and I and the managers. Since we are on the same schedule right now as the managers - Charlie and Terri - their long days are Sunday and Monday. It certainly was a long day.

I met Charlie outside the office at 7 AM and he started by showing me where to turn all the lights on, unlock all the doors, change the message board and several other opening procedures. It was then time for the breakfast service where we met up with Josie and Terri to serve coffee and tea and have breakfast together. We did 2 pour services and then we could sit down to enjoy our own breakfast. The chef and the Sous chefs serve the final coffee and tea pour.

I sat in on the daily conference call with our Regional Director who gets reports from each of the regional Communities (12) in his region on sales activity and events scheduled for that day. There was a special event yesterday - a waffle bar - so Charlie and I met up with some of the invited guests to spend time "selling" and gathering information. The event went from 9:30 to 11 AM and I chatted with an individual (Manny) who is 85 years old, uses a walker and will be moving into the Community in a couple weeks. There is a function called "make it stick" where the goal is to keep in the face of prospective residents so they don't change their minds at the last minute and back out of the commitment to move to the Community. It was a pleasant conversation and lasted until 11:30, the end of the event. Josie was training with Terri in the office while I was with the event in the dining room.

Then it was almost time for the dinner service, so we did the same coffee and tea service for that meal. There was training and information given us about procedures between all these activities and meals.

Josie and I took out a couple hours in the afternoon to go pick up our coffee table and end tables at Living Spaces and then met up with Charlie and Terri again for the supper service. We spent most of the rest of the time, until it was time to close at 8:30 PM, talking about reports, payroll and many other tasks that need to be performed each day. In order to make sure about emergency procedures, we did an ecall (emergency call) test. That's when a resident sets off the alarm from their apartment requesting assistance in an emergency. Last night we took the "beeper" to be able to respond to any ecalls during the night, if they should occur - there were none. The day was long but informative and enjoyable.

Today will be another long day as we work the entire day to cover for the couple that is spending their 2nd day off. Tuesday we only work until 3:30 as the other couple returns to work. So, we work 2 really long days, 3 shorter days and then have our 2 days off. It may sound confusing but it all makes sense.

There are assignments that Josie and I have to complete from our training manuals during our first week on the job and we haven't had time to begin those yet. We also need to order special shoes that the company provides that have non-slip souls so we can go safely in and out of the kitchen. There's so much to relate about the daily activities that will have to be reported over time, but let it be said that we will not be bored or looking for things to do every day...

Dinner With Our Managers

Once again we had a busy day scheduled. The fifth wheel was taken to the storage area where we did all the necessary paperwork and drove in to get set up:

It was sad in a way. This has been our home for the last 3 plus years and we were parking it to empty much of what was inside and to leave it sit for who knows how long. We do plan to get out and go places with it on our days off, but it is like leaving an old friend.

There were several other to-do items for the day. The first stop was at Living Spaces to pick up our coffee table and end table, but we decided to switch to a different style. We were going back and forth on Saturday as to which one to purchase, and we changed back to the first choice yesterday. The problem was the new choice had to be brought over from the warehouse unless we wanted to pay for delivery. We opted to wait until later today when we can take a break from work to go and pick it up.

The next stop was back at the fifth wheel to do some last minute gathering of food from the refrigerator and closets and to shut down all the systems in the rig for storage. Following a stop at Walmart to pick up some miscellaneous kitchen items, we came home to get ready for dinner.

Our new managers, Charlie and Terri McBay, offered to take us to dinner to chat some more about work and the tasks ahead. We went to P.F. Changs in Carlsbad and had a great dinner and conversation:

We will enjoy working with them. They are from Oklahoma where Charlie had a business of designing and manufacturing horse trailers, if you can believe that. Anyway, they have been with the company for over 2 years and have been very successful. We gained some good insight into how things are run and what the job entails. There is much to learn in a short time, but we feel like we are ready to tackle the job. We stopped off at a couple stores on the way home so that Terri could buy some needed items for our apartment - like a better shower head, a T.P. stand, a curved rod for the shower curtain and some new locks for our patio doors. There is nothing that they wouldn't do to make it right for us.

Today is the start of our new jobs. I will meet Charlie at 7 AM to open and begin learning the procedures. Josie will meet Terri at around 7:45 and we all will get together in the dining room to begin our assignments of pouring coffee and tea for the meal services. We get to eat after everyone else has been served. It promises to be an exciting day, so here goes...

Buying Furniture

The priorities for yesterday were to check out the RV storage area and to buy a few pieces of furniture. The RV storage facility - Extra Storage - is located just on the city limits of Oceanside where it touches Vista. It is about 6 miles from the Community and close enough. The spaces are very narrow - 11' wide - but we felt that our fifth wheel would be happy there. There is also an RV dump and nice wash area on site, so we decided we will move the rig there today. The prices are typical Southern California - out of sight - but the choices are few.

While we were so close to the ocean we thought it would be a good idea to check out an RV park that is across the street from the ocean in Oceanside. It will probably be a destination for us on our days off with the RV. It allows us to get away and also enjoy the beach. The RV storage facility is only about 3 miles from there.

Furniture was next on the list and it turned out to be a much more difficult task than we thought. The first was at Living Spaces in Vista, and they had tons of choices. Of course, the ones we liked were the high priced sofas. We wanted one that had recliners on each end. We thought it best to comparison shop before making any decision so we went to an Ashley Furniture store a mile down the road to check things out. The choices weren't nearly as good as Living Spaces and they couldn't deliver anything for several days whereas Living Spaces advertised same day delivery if purchased by 4 PM. That was a good selling point, so it was back to Living Spaces, where we settled on a sofa that was affordable. We also bought a TV stand and a coffee table/end table combination that were floor models so we have to return today to pick those up since they only deliver new pieces from their factory inventory. That's a good thing because we want to switch our choice in the coffee table/end table selection.

We spent the rest of the day and evening emptying the fifth wheel of all that we could think of that might be needed while we are here. We took these shots of the lobby area here at the Community between loads as it was late and everybody was gone for the day - starting with the welcome board at the entrance:

We will get more pictures over the next couple days as the lights were all off on the second floor and we couldn't get a good shot of the dining room yet.

The delivery of our furniture pieces was at 8:30 PM and we set up the TV and watched shows until after midnight. I worked on setting up my replacement broadband card from Verizon, and Josie did some wash in our washer/dryer combination to make sure it worked okay. She also did some organizing in the closet with all the clothes we carried in from the fifth wheel.

It is beginning to look like home and all we need now is an area rug for in front of the sofa and we should be good to go. We will take the fifth wheel to storage this morning and go pick up our remaining pieces of furniture at Living Spaces and just continue eliminating boxes and organizing the apartment. It is our last day before starting work tomorrow, and we have dinner scheduled with our new managers, Terri and Charlie, for this evening...

Vista, CA

Our plan was to put the Jeep on the tow dolly early so that we could leave by 7 AM yesterday. The problem was that it was still too dark out and Josie wanted to wait for daylight. We finally got everything loaded and left Surprise at around 7:45. Not too bad.

Since it was a little dark and very hectic, we didn't get any shots of our departure, but the trip itself was loaded with stops in rest areas and one stop for gas. We decided to take the southern route on I-8 rather than I-10 as we thought the traffic would be less going that way. It may have been less traffic but the rental truck struggled on the mountain pass just east of San Diego. We had to stop halfway to the summit to let it cool down.

The rest area stops were a relief for both of us. Below are a couple shots taken in the first rest area shortly after getting on I-8:

We stopped at one rest area just before the mountains and it was just in time to catch the Blue Angels practicing:

They flew over several times while we were stopped and created the longest stop of the day before they moved on to a distance too far to capture good shots. We hit the road again to tackle the mountains. Josie did a fabulous job handling the truck and tow dolly. When we exited I-8 it was a lot of stop and go travel through some small towns to pick up I-15. If I had known that the GPS was going to take us that way, I would have stayed on I-8 until it intersected with I-15 in San Diego. It would have been longer, but much easier for Josie.
But, we made it to Vista.

The first stop was at WalMart to park the fifth wheel and truck. We then went to Budget to unhitch the dolly and remove the Jeep. Josie followed me in the Jeep as I drove the rental truck to Arcadia Place to unload. We arrived there at around 4:30 PM. We met everybody and immediately started unloading everything into our apartment. There was a young guy on the staff here that helped unload and we were done within an hour. The apartment is small, but we feel we can make it look like home. Below is a shot of the "before" look with all our stuff prior to setting up:

You can't tell a whole lot from that shot, so the "after" will look much better. The bedroom is small and our stacked washer and dryer are in the bathroom. At least there is a tub so that makes Josie happy.

We drove back to Budget to drop off the rental truck and stopped at WalMart to pick up the fifth wheel. We parked that in the back of our building to unload some more stuff we needed and left it there for the night. Our next stop was Target to get glasses and silverware for the apartment. We decided we weren't going to move things back and forth from the trailer since we plan to still use it on weekends occasionally and didn't want that hassle of moving things between the two places. The trailer will be ready to go whenever we want to use it for travel.

We got everything set up enough to take showers and spend the night in our new home. There still is quite a ways to go to be settled, but we have made a good start. We will be off today and tomorrow, and begin work on Sunday...

Last Day Preparations

We had such great plans for the day and everything went according to plan until the afternoon.

Starting with gassing up the truck and performing a hand wash at the vehicle wash station here at Happy Trails. I hitched up the truck again and now the rig is ready to roll. We went to the post office to mail some last minute stuff and then went to pick up the tow dolly for the rental truck. It seems like an easy task to load the Jeep onto the dolly and secure it for the trip. We find out today. We also stopped by the church across the street to see if we could use their huge lot to park our rental truck and dolly overnight. They refused to allow it since they have had some problems in the past with truckers using the lot. The alternative for us is to park it in the Sam's Club parking lot and we got permission to do that from the store.

The next scheduled job was to do as much shredding as possible to eliminate the rest of the old files. Before that, I contacted a few RV storage facilities in or near Vista to get  a reservation, if needed. It seems that the RV storage units in that area are all "pack-em-in" places where you don't have enough room to open slide outs on your RV because they are so close together. That won't do for us, since we need to have access to the inside of the fifth wheel in order to come in and out for things we may need in the apartment. This has been our home for the last 4 years and there are lots of things we will need that we won't unload today. I finally located one that had enough room to open the slides - we hope - and it will do until we can gain a better knowledge of the area and look elsewhere.

Following that exercise I attempted to send some emails to our management team in Vista and couldn't get signed on to the Internet. The rest of the day and evening were spent trying to get online. I phoned Verizon who took me through many (failed) attempts to fix the problem. They suggested I take my broadband card to the local Verizon store and have a new Simm card put in to see if that would fix the problem. So, it was off to the Verizon store at around 6 PM and the net of the problem is that Verizon is going to overnight a new device to us in Vista. It will be there on Friday. In the meantime, they set up my new phone to be a hotspot so that I can have Internet access. So far, I still cannot sign on to any website through Internet Explorer which drives me closer to making the change to an Apple platform to get rid of this Microsoft junk software once and for all. This blog entry is being entered through Google Chrome.

The day got away from us again and I never shredded a single piece of paper. Those files will go with us to Vista where I will have to complete the job in our spare time. It has been a real challenge to get the things done that we needed to get done on our schedule. It is what it is, and we will leave this morning at 7 AM to load the Jeep and be on our way. We hope it all goes smoothly today...

Moving Truck is Loaded

It was close to 8 AM when we arrived at the Budget Rental location to pick up the truck. When we got to the storage unit, we discovered that the help we thought would be there was no where to be found. We had offered the young assistant manager $100 for 2 of of his friends to help us, so we guessed that they didn't need the money. Anyway, the assistant manager helped out and we gave him $50 for about 2 hours work.

I had a doctors appointment at 10 AM so I helped with some of the heavy pieces before I left and Josie and the young man finished up before I returned at 11:30. She actually had to sit around and wait about an hour for me to return. The truck is loaded and ready to go. The tow dolly for the Jeep will be picked up later today and hitched to the truck.

We then drove around near our campground to find a spot where we could park the truck and tow dolly overnight so we could get a quick start tomorrow morning. There is a huge church across the street and we will ask somebody today - if we can find somebody - about parking in their lot for just one night. That way, we can go across the street with the fifth wheel in tow, load the Jeep on the dolly, and head out without any driving through morning traffic.

We returned to the fifth wheel and I completed a couple expense reports to mail to the company while Josie contacted her sister-in-law to see if we could come over to visit her brother, who recently suffered a stroke. It was 3 PM when we arrived at their home and had a nice visit with them for a couple hours. Below is a shot of Josie and her brother Louie:

And also, the rest of the family that was there at the time - her sister-in-law (Ida) and their daughter (Rosie):

Her brother is doing well with his recovery and it is fortunate that there was no paralysis from the stroke. He did, however, lose his ability to speak which is slowly returning. It was an emotional day for Josie.

When we returned home we heard about the passing of a dear friend, Pastor Miner, who fought a 7 year battle with cancer. We are happy that he beat the odds for such a long time to be able to enjoy some quality time before succumbing to that dreaded disease.

Today is the day that we make final preparations in the fifth wheel and shred as many more files as possible before heading out tomorrow. One last day before moving on...

Catch Up day

We spent the entire day yesterday catching up on stuff that didn't get done the last 2 days. Following the remounting of our "repaired" tire on the fifth wheel, we did a check on storage to take a few things out of the "move" category to place back in the new, smaller storage area. The apartment we are getting in Vista is a bit smaller than the ones we've seen elsewhere so we don't want to take a chance on over filling the apartment.

A trip was made to the cleaners to drop off a few shirts for work and then it was off to get the Jeep serviced. That is something that has been overdue. Then it was back to the rig to catch up on paperwork for the relocation expenses to submit to corporate. That took some time as I had to scan all the receipts and get them ready for mailing today.

We went to a couple furniture stores to get some idea on options we have been looking at for the living room in the new apartment, but we couldn't really do anything until we actually see the place and know for sure how much room we have to work with. A trip was made to Sam's Club to shop TV's. Following some research online about technologies, models and prices, we decided on a TV that was on back order at our local Sam's Club. They did have that particular model in stock at the Avondale store, so we made the trip there and picked one up to take with us. Our plan is to use the new TV at Vista and eventually replace the one in the fifth wheel with this new one. They are both the same size - 46".

It's loading day today and we will leave at 7:30 to pick up the truck at Budget Rental in town. I have a doctor's appointment at 10 AM so Josie will have to supervise the loading until I get back. I'm sure it will all be done as there isn't much to load. The guy at the storage facility was suppose to line up a couple of his friends to do the loading, so we hope they show up. Our plan B is to do it ourselves - not something we would enjoy.

We'll get some breakfast and be off to Budget...

An Unexpected Delay

We went to breakfast at the Village Inn yesterday morning before getting started on our day's chores. When we returned from the airport on Saturday night, I noticed that the fifth wheel wasn't level. Following breakfast, I did a walk around on the rig and discovered the reason:

After talking about the job to get the tire repaired and remounted, we decided to call our Good Sam Road Service to come out and do the job - quickly and at no cost to us. We waited around for over an hour for the truck to arrive and the fun began. First of all, the tech didn't have a jack to raise the trailer to remove the wheel, so I grabbed the 2 hydraulic jacks I had in my RV to use. We jacked it up, removed the wheel and discovered he couldn't get access to the spare tire under the rig. I couldn't locate the manual to see how that's done, so he left and told us to give him a call back after we got the tire fixed.

We took the wheel to Sams Club which was the only place open on Sunday to do tire repairs. It turned out to be the best place anyway, since they didn't charge anything to fix the flat. It is a Goodyear tire which they sell, and they covered the repair.

To make a long story short, we got the tire fixed but it was too late to call the tech back, and the jacks didn't raise the fifth wheel high enough for me to remount the wheel. It will be done today.

The day was again wasted on something that wasn't planned and threw our schedule back one day. We have the truck now scheduled for Tuesday, with an arrival in Vista on Thursday.

The evening was a different story and we had a wonderful visit with Amy, Jesse and Jason, and of course, George and Cheryl. Brian was not able to get home from his meetings in Sacramento, so we had a great time eating pizza for dinner:

The NFC Championship game was on and we watched it until it ended as a tie in regulation before we left at around 8:15 PM. Hopefully, they all can come out to Vista and visit us sometime soon.

The day will be busy today doing catch up on our preparations for the move. We hope to get everything done today, even with the completion of the tire fiasco...

Wasted Day of Travel

It shouldn't take 14 hours to fly from Eugene, OR to Phoenix, AZ, but it did.

We arrived at the Eugene airport in plenty of time (4:30 AM) for our 6:05 AM flight to Salt Lake City. We boarded the plane right on time, backed out from the gate and sat for about 5 minutes before the Captain came on the intercom and said there was a problem with one of the engines and he had to go back to the gate and have it checked. Everybody got off the plane and sat inside the terminal. The first announcement was that there was no mechanic around at this hour on Saturday morning and they were going to get one out of bed to come in and also have another sent down from Portland to assist. Meal vouchers were handed out to all the passengers. Big deal - they gave us all a $12 voucher and there wasn't any place to use it except for a small snack shop where you couldn't get anything except coffee and sweet rolls. At around 9:30 AM, the announcement was made that the flight crew had timed out and had to leave. Now, we have a plane with no crew to fly it. The agents at the gate did everything they could to help the passengers by making changes to all connecting flights in Salt Lake City, but each change they made had to be redone as more flights were missed as a result of the continuing delay in Eugene.

We sat through several more announcements until we all got so frustrated we started to visit the other airline ticket counters to try and make other arrangements on our own. We went to the US Airways counter and got tickets for a flight to Portland that, with a plane change to a direct flight, would get us to Phoenix by 7:30 PM with a one hour time change to Mountain time.

The flight from Eugene to Portland was a puddle jumping prop plane that only had six passengers and was a roller coaster ride in the strong winds outside. But it was a flight to an airport that had more options and we arrived at 12:30 PM. We  sat around the Portland airport until our flight left at 3:45 PM. We had some anxious moments there as the gate agent told us the flight may be delayed as a result of maintenance issues with the plane. Not again, please.

We were relieved when the plane finally lifted off and we were on our way. By the time we landed, got our luggage - another miracle that they arrived with us in Phoenix - took the shuttle to the parking lot, picked up the car and drove home, it was nearly 9 PM. We jokingly said that we probably could have driven from Eugene to home and gotten here at about the same time. The total time from when we got up in the morning (2 AM) until we arrived at home was about 19 hours.

The result of the long day was that it wasted valuable time for us to get things organized to be ready for picking up the truck on Monday AM. We will have to work fast to finish up on our shredding and packing to be ready.

Tonight we will get a chance, hopefully, to see Brian and Amy and the kids along with George and Cheryl one more time before we head west. It's a shame we don't have more time to spend here to be able to enjoy a more flexible schedule but it will be nice if we can catch everybody at the same time tonight. We're also sorry that we won't be able to see Cot and Lois on this trip since they are back east attending the funeral of Cot's brother who suddenly passed away.

It's breakfast and then back to work...

Training is Over

The first thing we did in class yesterday was, of course, review the final exam. Mary, our instructor, didn't grade the papers but handed them out randomly for each student to grade as we reviewed each question. There were 62 questions and the person that graded mine happened to be sitting in front of me and she indicated that I only had 6 wrong on the exam. That turned out to be one of the highest grades and Josie found out later that she also passed.

Mary spent some time reviewing the 2 weeks and asking for suggestions for future classes and then we started our one-on-one (couple) talks with her. As we were the only couple staying at the hotel one more night, we were last on the schedule. It was around 3:45 PM by the time we finished up and left to come back to the hotel. All of the other couples left for Portland as their discussions with Mary ended. She told us that she thought we would do very well in our Community and our personalities would have a calming effect on the residents. We appreciated her kind words and confidence and indicated she would be visiting us soon on a scheduled trip to Southern CA.

It's finally over, and we are excited about going to our assignment. The people we will be working with at the start of our adventure in Vista seem to be very nice and certainly have the respect of the Regional Director.

Our flight leaves at 6:05 this morning from Eugene and neither one of us slept very well last night as we were afraid we would overleep. The weather forecast is for icy roads and winds, so we didn't want to rush to get to the airport.

There are lots of action items on our agenda over the next several days and we aren't looking forward to the actual drive to Vista on (probably) Tuesday or Wednesday. We'll be checking out of the hotel shortly and be on our way...

Final Exam Taken

Yesterday's classroom work was totally opposite of the day before. The entire morning and early afternoon were lecture topics and it was difficult to stay concentrated on the content. Everybody was eager to get on with the final exam and be gone for the day.

It was the last day for Cyndie (on the right, below), the 2nd person on the training team with Mary:

and she was the person responsible for handling all our expenses during the training class.

We finally got to the final exam stage of training at around 3:30 PM and the fun began. It was a totally open book exam and it didn't matter as the questions were difficult and was a real test of our note taking ability. Questions were multiple choice, true or false and fill-in the answers, and there were 62 total questions on the exam. Following the exam, all of us were shaking our heads and just hoping we got enough answers right to pass the test. We'll know this morning when we review the results in class.

It was such a relief to be past this stage of training, and some of us went downstairs off the hotel lobby after changing clothes and just relaxed and visited over glasses of wine and appetizers from the hotel menu:

It's down to the final day - or half day as we suspect. All that is left is the review of the exam and some one-on-one assessments by Mary with each couple that will last for probably 15 minutes each. Everyone is checking out of the hotel this morning, with the exception of Josie and I, and they will head to Portland after class. We are the only couple scheduled to depart from Eugene early tomorrow morning.

We had a brief conversation with Terri - one of the interim managers at Arcadia Place in Vista CA, and she was able to convince our Regional Director to allow a couple more days for us to get transitioned to the new location and get our apartment set up. So, instead of reporting for work next Friday, we have until Sunday to get moved and situated.

It's been a long 2 weeks, but we are finally at the end...

All Day Role Playing

As expected, the entire day was spent in the Community doing role play exercises. One of the most important aspects of the sales cycle is to conduct tours of the Community and establish rapport with the prospective residents. We each had to play different roles in these situations and the experience was  a good one for handling objections by these prospective residents.

The class ended with a review of the exam which is scheduled today, and an invitation to go to dinner at a restaurant in town called the "Flat Tail Brewery". Our instructor, Mary, and her assistant for the class, Cyndie, paid for our dinner with the exception of any drinks we had. It was a great meal and a great time, and even though it was rather dark in the place, we were able to get these shots of the good time. The first one is of our instructor, Mary, going over the menu with one of our classmates, Rey, and Cyndie next to him:

and this one of the other end of the tables:

Following our dinner we returned to the hotel and prepared for the open book exam which is today. It's down to crunch time now at the class and it looks like we will survive the 2 week marathon.

We received pictures of our apartment which still has a little bit of furniture left in it from the previous managers and we were asked if we wanted any for our use. The only thing we asked to be left for us is a nice looking recliner. The rest will be provided by us when we arrive.

We're leaving early for class now so that we can stop at Safeway to get some cold medicine for Josie who is suffering with her first cold of the year. Two days to go...

Tuesday in Class

It was a day of mostly classroom discussions yesterday. There was some role playing but for the most part it was a boring day. There are some of the students that have caught some kind of bug and were dragging all day long. Actually, the ones that caught the bug were the ones that were partying most of the night on Saturday. Hmm. I remember those days.

We connected with the temporary managers at our assigned Community in Vista and spoke with Terri McBay for about an hour on the phone last night. She painted a bleak picture of the situation that exists at the Community which we suspected all along. There have been too many management changes there and they have lost many residents, most to moving to higher care facilities like assisted living. She indicated that there were 114 apartments and about 65% of them are occupied at the moment. The Company targets 95% occupancy, so we have our work cut out for us. It is an older building and has some maintenance issues which makes us a little uneasy. This is one of the buildings that was acquired by the Company and not one that was built to the cookie cutter specifications of most of the Communities. Our apartment is also a bit smaller than in most other Communities, so we will have to make do with whatever is assigned to us.

The biggest challenge that we face in the near term is packing, loading, driving from Phoenix to Vista, unloading, returning vehicles and getting set up in just 4 days. We will pick up the truck on Monday the 23rd, and have to report to work on Friday the 27th. We'll have to make it work. Most of the other students, we are finding out, have up to a week and a half to get settled in their new assignments, and some of those are only moving within the city they currently reside. I don't how or why they believe we can change the world in a couple days but we are reporting earlier to work. Like I said, we'll have to make it work. It sounds exciting nonetheless, and we are anxious to meet the people at the new location.

Today will be opposite of yesterday. It will be role playing most of the day and that suits us fine. The day will go faster and we will only have 2 more days to go. It's off to class we go...

Start of Last Training Week

Our overnight stay at the Community performing our e-call duty was uneventful - thank goodness. The room was lousy and the bed was small but we made it through for one night.

The day was filled with special duties for us. We started the morning in class by leading our "Take 10" exercise which is a rah-rah session held everyday by a different couple. It covers different aspects of the Holiday Communities and is intended to get everybody psyched-up for the events of the day.

Our next duty was to act as coffee/tea servers for the lunch hour in the Community dining room. That went well and gave us an opportunity to have lunch with the managers in the Community and gain some valuable insight into their experiences in the 4 months they have been here. They are a very nice couple - Mike and Giana Norman - that came from CO to work in this Community. They said nothing that would dissuade us from continuing our adventure. They said some things that scared us a little bit, but we feel that experience will eliminate those concerns.

The final big "event" for us was a conference call with our Regional Director - Randy Perras - at 2 PM. The purpose of that call was to finalize our Community assignment - still Vista - and talk about the training and time frame for beginning work at the new location. We will start work on Friday, January 27 at the Arcadia Place Community in Vista, CA. We will be working with temporary Managers there for awhile while we learn the operations side of the business. He indicated that we would also, eventually, be utilized as part time "floaters" in some of the Communities in the Region where help is needed to fill-in for short periods of time. The indication from him was that he thought we would become Managers in a short period of time. That scared us a little bit since our goal is not to move up in this Company, but to put in 2-3 years as Co-managers to solidify our retirement. Most people going into these assignments are looking for new careers. Not us. The big advantages though of moving into the Managers' job is a larger apartment (2 BR) and more money. We'll see, if and when the time comes.

We all went out to a sandwich shop last night for dinner - Togo's - in Corvallis. It was much like a Subway and I have this shot of the group:

Notice that everybody is bundled up for the cold weather we've been having. It is snowing again this morning and we expect a worse day, weather wise, than yesterday. We'll be glad to get back to warm weather in AZ.

Today should be a fairly easy day for us since our main assignments are now completed for the week...

From the Stoneybrook Lodge Community

Our Sunday was spent doing mostly - you guessed it - homework. We had to complete the competitor visit form and send it to our instructor before 8 PM last night. We also had a few other computer assignments to complete and the day was pretty much shot when they were all done. We did venture out to the store in the morning in this stuff:

Our duty for e-call (emergency call) was last night from 7 PM until 7 AM this morning. We packed a small bag with our clothes for today and headed to the Community at 6:15. There was still some snow on the ground and we had more during the night to wake up to this again:

That's the view from our balcony. The room is nothing to write home about and we are hoping that our apartment where we're going isn't like this one we stayed in all night. It is decorated in early "simple". A love seat and TV with a stand in the living room, and a bed, dresser, night stand and chest of drawers in the bedroom. It has a small kitchenette with a sink, small microwave and small refrigerator. There are some pictures hanging around on the walls but they look like the $5.95 variety from K-Mart. Oh well, it isn't for a permanent resident and ours is suppose to be larger, and we also get to furnish it ourselves.

We were fortunate that there were no incidents during the night. Our duty ended at 7 AM - 35 minutes ago. There haven't been any so far on the night duty for any of the students so far. Each night a different couple spends the night doing this at the Community to get an idea about procedures, if and when something does happen.

There will most likely be a day full of role playing again today. We do have a conference call scheduled with our Regional Director at 2 PM where he will review our Community assignments and the transition to the new location. Our hope is that we still go to Vista, CA.

We are gathering our things to get ready for leaving the apartment so that about wraps it up for now...

Weekend Assignment

The biggest assignment, and most important one for the weekend, was to visit a competitor Community and report the findings. Our instructor assigned a Community based on where we would like to go over the weekend. We thought we would like to go to Salem since it is on the way to a casino we visited while we were working in Lincoln City. Since it was the weekend and my birthday, why not give it a shot.

We got an early start following breakfast so we could be at the Community by 10 AM -  about 45 miles from us. The Community was The Springs at Sunnyview and is an Independent Living Community similar to the one where we are training. The first thing we noticed was that the Community was not as nice from the outside. When we entered the building, we were not greeted by anyone and had to go into the office to get the attention of someone to help us. They finally had the Marketing person greet us and she sat us down in her office to ask questions.

We played the role of a couple looking for a facility for ourselves. We had a daughter who we were visiting in Tualatin and she told us about this Community and suggested we visit before leaving for our home in AZ tomorrow (today). It was our first look at this type of living and we wanted to start looking early in our lives.

She bought our story and proceeded to spend about 2 hours with us, showing the Community to us and showing apartments and 1 cottage that may be of interest. Of course, our goal was to find out as much as we could about the Community and how it compares with ours. Josie and I were very impressed by the Community and, for the most part, offers all the same amenities and benefits that ours offers. The residents we met during the tour were all very happy and friendly. We felt like we achieved our goal and got answers to almost all the questions we had. Today we will write up our findings and report them to our instructor on Monday AM.

We left to go to the Spirit Mountain Casino which was 25 miles west of our location in Salem. We were there for probably 3 hours and won a few small pots, but nothing worth mentioning. It was a fun way to spend part of my birthday and we had dinner at the restaurant there to use up the points we had accumulated on our Spirit Mountain Club Card.

We stopped again in Salem on the way home at the Salem Center, which is a nice mall in the center of town. We escaped without making any purchases which is a rare occasion.

It was home by 8 PM last night and we awoke to a trace of snow on the ground and very cold temps:

We're glad we did the Commmunity assignment yesterday and we have the day today to wrap up the rest of our homework assignments and get to our Community by 7 PM to begin our turn for the overnight emergency call duty...

Late Post

Yes, it's late. This is probably the latest I've ever posted an entry since I began this practice about 3 years ago. We had a busy morning and wanted to get a head start for the day, so I put the blog on hold.

Friday was a day that was spent entirely in role play situations within the Community. We all played the role of the greeter of a prospective resident, accompanied them to a private room, interviewed them (pre-qualified them) and set up a follow up tour for them at a later time. It helped speed up the day but for the most part, it was not an exercise, in our mind, that provided the return on the time spent that they had hoped for. The day ended with a discussion of our competitor shop visit - another independent living community that our instructor chose for each of the couples - that was to take place over the weekend. Josie and I decided to do ours first thing today to get it out of the way.

Other than that, we were very happy to see the week end. We also chose to get a head start on our computer assignments last night for the weekend so that they wouldn't be a last minute rush for us. Our turn to be the resident team on e-call alert is Sunday night, starting at 7 PM, so we have less time to complete our weekend assignments. That involves our spending the night in the Community until 7 AM Monday morning.

You probably will get a chance to read tomorrow's blog entry  about the time you read this, so I'll just end this entry for Friday...

T.G.I.F.

What we thought was going to be a night with just a little bit of homework turned out to be another marathon. It wasn't until 11 PM again before we finished and went to bed. And, we didn't complete every assignment that we had. The main reason for that is continuing computer software problems that extend these homework periods to probably double what they should be.

Almost the entire day yesterday was spent in role playing situations and team presentations. Those kinds of classroom activities tend to make the days go faster, so that's okay.

There have been an unusual number of management changes at this particular Community and the residents are upset, as you would expect. The Regional Manager came in to speak at the lunch to try to make them feel better about the changes, but she failed. We hope this is an isolated situation and not one that is common throughout the system. We're confident that it is, since all the other visits we made to the Communities outside were ones that had happy and satisfied residents.

T.G.I.F. The week has been very long and we are looking forward to having some free time this weekend. The main assignment for this weekend will be for us to visit a competitor Community, to be assigned to us by our instructor located in the town we would like to visit over the weekend. It should be fun.

We're headed down to breakfast now so we'll see 'ya later...

Off Site Training Day

The only day of our training class to be held off site from the Community was yesterday. It gave all of us a chance to wear casual clothes and sit in a room with round tables instead of classroom style with tables. It was a much more relaxing experience, even though the content of the classwork was still overwhelming. There is no way that we can remember all the material that is being presented and all of us have our heads spinning. We are reminded that it will all come together soon.

The homework assignments have all been disrupted by the computer problems with the training network. All of us are behind in completing assignments as a result of the network problems. There are several team presentations that we are working on and Josie is nervous, as we all are, about getting up in front of everybody and giving a presentation. I keep telling her that it is normal to be nervous and everybody feels that way.

The week is going slowly for most of us. The pace of the course is faster than we expected and we all are looking forward to the weekend. Unfortunately, our weekend will be cut a little short as the luck of the draw has Josie and I "on-call" Sunday night, starting at 7 PM. That means we stay in one of the apartments for the night and be ready to respond to any emergency that may arise during the night. So far, the couples that have done their shift have had no incidents, so we hope to be as lucky. Our Monday will also be busy as our turns for some of the other duties also fall on that day.

There are lots of role playing and team exercises which help to break the routine of listening to lectures. The only real complaint is the amount of homework being assigned. We have watched very little TV since we've been here.

It's back to the community today for class and we have a presentation to give early this morning on Aid to Veterans and how to help residents who are Veterans gain extra financial support. We will keep our noses to the grindstone and try to get through the uncomfortable periods...

Full Speed Ahead

It was another intense day in the classroom yesterday. It started off with the announcement that one of the couples in the class tossed in the towel and left as it wasn't for them. It still leaves 7 couples to go forward in the training session. It is totally sales oriented which is why the program was shortened from 4 weeks to 2 weeks. All of the operations portion was eliminated and will be left to the teams to learn "on the job" when they return to their Communities. Sales is not a comfort zone for many people, so it is scary enough to have all this jargon and technique thrown at them all at once. Throw in the uniqueness of the industry and one can see why people move on to different jobs.

The classroom is very comfortable and is located in the clubhouse portion of the Community complex:

I took these shots during our morning break and below is a view of the main entrance which is directly across from the (above) clubhouse:

It was sunny and a little breezy yesterday which is always a welcome change in the Northwest.

The class is filled with role playing, computer software training and strategies designed to generate leads for prospective residents. We are all overwhelmed by the amount of information being given us, but we are all hoping that it will "click" and become easier as time goes on. The attendees are a very friendly group with varying backgrounds and ages. Most of them would probably be in their 50's is our guess.

Today's class will be held at the hotel as a result of the clubhouse being booked for an event at the Community. That means we all can dress casually for one day and put away the dress shirts, ties, heels and business attire.

The homework assignments are time consuming, leaving little time for pleasure in the evenings. That has been further complicated with computer problems where most of the attendees have not been able to change required passwords as a result of bad settings in the "loaned" computers' firewall. Ours is one of the few with proper settings, so we have been able to keep up with the assignments. It still makes for a long week.

We are still enthusiastic about the direction we are taking and hope that it continues throughout the training class...

First Day of Training

We had breakfast at the hotel early yesterday in order to allow enough time to find the Stoneybrook Lodge Community where our training was to be held. We have 16 coupons for free breakfasts at the hotel which is the only meal that should be away from the Community during class days.

All of the attendees introduced themselves and talked a little about their backgrounds and how they got here. We were surprised that there were so many that have not received their exact locations for working assignments. In fact, Josie and I and maybe 2 other couples out of the 9 that are here know where they are going at this point. Everybody will know for sure by the start of the 2nd week of training. We reviewed all the paperwork for completeness and then were told we all were "officially" hired.

So far, it is a very intense class with heavy emphasis on sales which is what we were told by our friends Tee and Larry. Each couple was given (loaned) a laptop to be used for class assignments during the training. Everybody had problems getting the initial setup completed on the computers, so we aren't sure how many will have the homework assignment completed for today.

Following our first day, most of us met in the hotel restaurant for dinner. That meal would be expensed since we didn't eat it for free at the Community following class. I took a picture of the group and then had a waitress take this (complete) shot of all of us that were there:

It was a good start to our training session and the people that we met are all enthusiastic and anxious to begin our permanent assignments.

Day 2 promises to be just as intense and we are ready to go. We are about to leave for breakfast so we can arrive at the classroom a little early to complete our computer assignments from last night. Until tomorrow...

Travel to Training Class

The alarm was set for 3:30 AM yesterday but the anticipation of the upcoming day caused both of us to wake up at 3 AM and begin getting ready. It was an easy drive to the airport in Phoenix - at 4:30 AM on a Sunday - and we were at the gate and ready to go at 6 AM for our 7:05 flight.

Our flight to Eugene was via Salt Lake City and we flew in First Class on both legs. The flights were oversold, so we assumed the First Class tickets were the only seats available when the Company booked the flights. It was nice having the extra room and service, but on short flights of 2 hours or less there isn't a full meal service. It was clear all the way until we arrived in SLC, where there were clouds and fog:

The snow was clearly visible everywhere and the temperature was 15 degrees when we arrived there at around 9:30 AM. Planes were being de-iced and there was ice all over the airport:

It is a beautiful city with all the mountains surrounding the entire area.

We have taken 2 trips with this Company so far, and we have had serious flight delays on both trips. Yesterday, the arriving plane that we were to take to OR was delayed by weather and it was 3 hours late taking off for Eugene. I am sure glad I don't have to deal with airports and flights anymore on a regular basis. It was a different scene flying into the Eugene airport as there was no snow and some beautiful areas of forests and hills:

It brought back memories of many hunting trips in areas like this with all the trees and logged areas.

The hotel where we will be staying for the next 2 weeks is the Hilton Garden Inn in Corvallis. It is directly across the street from the stadium at Oregon State University and we are surrounded by student housing and fraternities. It is a very nice hotel and our room has everything we need, including a refrigerator, microwave, and coffee maker that will make our stay more enjoyable:

There was a new hire packet for each of us in our room containing all the paperwork that needed to be completed and brought to class today. After having a nice Chinese dinner in town, we came back, completed the paperwork, watched a little TV and hit the sack at 9 PM.

We are ready to go to breakfast downstairs and head to class. Day 1 of training is about to begin...

Chores and Packing

It was a runaround day yesterday. We both got haircuts and while Josie was out doing some last minute shopping I did more shredding and sorting of boxes filled with files. We picked up our mail at the Happy Trails Post Office and did some other miscellaneous stuff before starting to pack in the late afternoon. We also stopped at the Red Robin and had a great hamburger for a late lunch which also served as dinner.

It's been quite a while since we've had to pack for such a long time - 2 weeks. That made for some tough decisions on how much of everything to pack since we would have access to a laundry in the Community where the training will take place. Anyway, we got all packed and ready to go.

It was shortly after 3 AM when we got up this morning and after having some breakfast will head to the airport where I have a parking space reserved at an off site parking facility near the airport. We've used them before and know the procedures for parking and connecting with the shuttles.

Our flight leaves at 7 AM so, by leaving at around 4:30, we will allow (hopefully) enough time to get parked and through security before it's time to leave.

This is it. The official beginning of our new adventure. Hang on for the ride...

On The Brink

Here we are standing on the brink of leaving for the start of our new adventure. Yesterday was a day of making sure we had everything ready, except packing our luggage, to leave for our training class on Sunday. Among other things, I had the truck serviced for a final trip to CA when we return from training and we had planned to get the Jeep serviced but Josie had other errands to perform and didn't have time to get that done. That is on today's schedule. Of course, we still have a little time between training and moving to accomplish some of these things. The main thing is that the storage effort is completed.

We also received last minute reminders from Holiday Retirement before coming to training, such as: bringing voided checks and ID to complete hiring paperwork, directions to the hotel from the airport and bringing certain items that will be required during the training class.

The highlite of yesterday was  a wonderful visit and dinner with my brother George and Cheryl:

We were brought up to date on everything that has been happening with their family and each of our new adventures. They are working on a new eBay business venture that is occupying much of their time and providing some extra income for retirement. We hope that takes off for them. We plan to get together again following our training class and hopefully visit with Brian and his family and our friends Cot & Lois. We look forward to that visit before loading the truck and moving to CA.

There are a few necessary chores for today - especially haircuts - before beginning the packing for our trip to Eugene tomorrow. The flight leaves at 7 AM from Phoenix so we need to be at the airport by around 5 or 5:30. It's a good thing we were used to getting up at 4 AM to work at Amazon...

Done With Storage Effort

Our day was a little slow starting as we tried to get more files shredded before leaving for the storage unit. We also thought it would be a good idea to visit our friends, Carole and Dick Cole, in the morning before getting started and to go to the Village Inn for breakfast which was our favorite spot for breakfast when we lived here.

We had a wonderful visit with our friends and former neighbors here in Happy Trails and they suggested that they accompany us to breakfast at the Village Inn which made our visit even more enjoyable. They travel back and forth each year from Michigan to Happy Trails. We took this shot as we were leaving the Inn:

We will visit with them again before leaving AZ for Vista, CA.

Our day at the storage unit started around 1 PM and was another very busy afternoon. We finally got everything sorted by around 6:30 last night. Our original storage unit now contains everything we will be taking to the apartment in CA, and our new, smaller space has everything that we will be keeping for future use. Several more trips to Goodwill were made but we didn't spend a lot of time opening boxes and sorting contents where we pretty much knew what was inside. Those boxes were just transferred to the smaller space, so we still have lots of things that we may get rid of down the road. We did bring about 6 more boxes back to the rig to shred and throw away. I don't know when we will finally get all the shredding done but it will keep us busy while we are spending time watching TV.

Our plan today is to get some of our other chores done - both vehicles need service, we both need haircuts and Josie needs to visit her brother sometime while we are here.

We are looking forward to spending our evening with my brother George and sister-in-law Cheryl. It will be nice to get caught up with their adventures and travels since we last saw them over 2 years ago. Time does fly, doesn't it?...

Marching Through Storage

Before going to the storage unit yesterday, we decided to make a change in the plan. We feel a lot more comfortable just moving the things we will need for our apartment in Vista rather than moving everything into a new storage unit in CA. That enables us to downsize the space here in Surprise - to save $50 per month - and totally eliminate the space in CA. So if, for any reason, it doesn't work out in CA, we won't have to move everything back again. Other advantages with that plan are that Josie can drive a smaller rental truck and the costs to move will be lowered which keeps us within our relocation allowance.

We made all of our phone calls in the morning and sent all the emails required to change the plan. The approvals are all in place and we are set to go. It doesn't make the job any easier to go through everything and decide what goes, what stays, and what gets given to Goodwill or thrown away. We spent from around 1 PM until after 6 PM going through as much as we could for the day. The manager at the storage facility was again accommodating as he set us up in a smaller space, very close to where we are now, and gave us a super special price since we are long time customers. He also allowed us to use their dumpster out back for all our trash which is not a service provided to all tenants. They are also very happy that they are not losing a customer.

Following our day of "sorting", we stopped at Sam's Club across the street to purchase a new paper shredder. We brought about 8 boxes of files and old papers home to shred. It was also a convenient place to have dinner - pizza.

It's back to the storage unit this morning and there is a good chance we can get through the rest of the unit today and be done with that phase. There are other things we would like to do before leaving on Sunday for training. Josie would like to visit her brother in Phoenix who suffered a stroke a short time ago and there are other people we would like to visit that we worked with over the last few years. We also are looking forward to having dinner and spending an evening with George and Cheryl tomorrow night.

Just a note about gas prices here - they are about $.20 per gallon higher in AZ than any other place we've traveled since we left KY. I don't understand that, since AZ was always among the lowest gas prices before we left almost 3 years ago. I'm sure that they are still lower than the prices in CA, so we can't complain...

Arrival in Surprise, AZ

We were anxious to get on the road yesterday to finish the long trip from Campbellsville, KY to Surprise, AZ. The 164 mile trip from Tucson to Surprise was nostalgic and went smoothly with the exception of a slow down in Phoenix as a result of an accident in the eastbound lanes of I-10. We were glad we waited until 9 AM to leave Tucson as we missed the rush hour traffic in both towns.

We arrived on schedule shortly after noon yesterday and proceeded to set up our rig for the extended stay here. There was a problem with the water - we didn't have any - so I called the owner to find out if it had been shut off for any reason. He indicated that there should be no reason for it to be off, so he came over from his home in Sun City Grand to check it out. It turns out that there were 2 problems: the first one was that the valve was stuck which we released with a lot of force. The second problem was that there was an open pipe - from a previous renter who ran over and broke a sprinkler head - so we fixed that and we were then ok. Here is a shot of our site (taken this AM since we were so busy yesterday, we forgot):

The first thing we wanted to do when we finally got totally settled at 3 PM was to go to our storage unit to check it out. On the way, we drove by our old house in Sun City Grand and took this shot:

It looks great and the biggest change we noticed was that the new owners removed the huge Palo Verde tree we had next to the courtyard. Of course, we didn't see the rear to see what changes were made there.

We spent time talking with the manager at the storage facility about several different issues we wanted clarified. He is very accommodating as we are, perhaps, the longest customers they have had since they opened in 2008. We were one of the first to rent a space. He will provide a temporary space for us, as close to our existing space as possible, in which to place items we will be moving while we clean out the entire space. He also said we could back up a truck to load our goods at the back exit - which is normally forbidden - to load everything for the move, and that is very close to our space.

As soon as we raised the door to the space to say hello to our contents, it became apparent that we really had our work cut out for us. There will be some tough decisions to make on items - whether to keep them or get rid of them - and the space is totally full (10x15). In some ways it will be fun to see some of the things we've missed, and in other ways it will be sad to part with some items. We will have to have the whole sorting process completed by the time we leave for training on Sunday. That gives us 4 full days starting today. Here we go...

Tucson, AZ

We didn't realize until yesterday that it has been over 2 years since we were last in Arizona. It almost feels like we're coming home.

The drive was uneventful and we did the 257 miles in just over 5 hours, including a few stops for gas and potty breaks. We were surprised that it was so windy when we arrived and, in fact, was windy through the night and the wind is still blowing hard. We have the weather channel on now to find out what the deal is with the winds and whether they will stop today.

The campground - Adventure Bound's Cactus Country RV Resort - is very nice and we have another pull-thru space which, again, allows us to keep the truck hitched to the fifth wheel. Below is a picture of our site:

We are still trying to figure out the logistics for our work to be done at the storage unit in Surprise. We don't have a place to keep things as we empty the unit, so somehow, we need to be able to go through everything, set aside disposables, and place everything back into the unit until after our training class which ends on 1/21. There is much to do with that unit in a short time.

Another thing we look forward to doing is visiting with family and friends again. That is one thing we miss while on the road. Hopefully, we can get caught up on what everybody is doing, and has been doing the last couple of years. The kids will definitely be bigger, and us old folks will look a little older. Our visits will most likely begin with our friends and neighbors from Happy Trails, Carole and Dick, probably today after getting settled in at the site. We have been communicating with them and look forward to seeing them again.

It will be an exciting day for us as we wrap up this long journey from Campbellsville, KY today. The total distance we've traveled since we left on December 20 will be just over 2300 miles. It was a fun time, but we're glad to be back in Arizona, even if it is for a short time. We would like to arrive in Surprise around noon today which gives us lots of time to get set up and check out the changes since we left there in 2009. The trip is only 167 miles, so we will leave around 9 AM and, hopefully, miss all the traffic in Tucson and Phoenix...

Enjoying Las Cruces

Following a leisurely morning, we went out-and-about in Las Cruces. The first place we wanted to see was the Holiday Retirement Community that is located here. It is very nice, like all the others we've seen:

The inside was very familiar as almost all of the communities follow the same floor plan for the main building. This is  picture of the dining room area:

We met the Manager that was on duty and he took us on a mini tour of the facility - again, very similar to the others. They are all well kept and classy places. We hope the one we are going to in Vista is just as nice.

One of our goals for staying an extra day in Las Cruces was to get a feel for the area as a potential retirement location. We went to several different neighborhoods to see the homes and check out the prices they were selling them for in this poor economy. Las Cruces is the fastest growing city in New Mexico and one of the top 10 rated cities to retire in based on the "Where to Retire" magazine. The homes we saw were all in the $190K to $320K range and were what we consider as "steals". They ranged from 1800 S.F. to over 2500 S.F. and were beautiful, western style homes. Most of the new developments are on the east side of the city and all of the homes had some views of the Organ Mountains:

We are a long way from considering any home, but it was nice to see the relative values in this area. It would still be a consideration when the day comes for us to settle in one location. We still would like to rent homes in places we love for months at a time before settling anywhere.

It was back to the rig in the afternoon where Josie did some reorganizing inside while I cleaned the outside of the fifth wheel. It was a good day that ended with some pork and sauerkraut in the crock pot for dinner.

It's off to Arizona today where we will stay in Tucson tonight. The trip will be 257 miles where we will stay at the Adventure Bound Camping Resorts in Tucson. We're almost to our AZ destination where we will be based for most of January while preparing for our relocation to Vista CA. It's 29 degrees outside (Brrr!), and we will leave when it warms up a bit - hopefully around 9 AM...

Las Cruces, NM

It was close to 8 AM when we got on the road yesterday to travel the 280 miles to Las Cruces, NM. It was another bright, clear day as we traveled through the "nothingness" of western Texas again. It was nice to see civilization again as we went through El Paso and entered the state of New Mexico:

We arrived at our campground - Hacienda RV Resort - at 12:45 after gaining an hour when we crossed into the Mountain Time Zone. The park is very nice and we have another pull through space where we can leave the truck hitched to the fifth wheel:

After setting up, we took a short drive to Old Mesilla, which is a historic town next to Las Cruces, and only about a mile from the campground. We walked around the Plaza where there were many nice shops and restaurants:

and there was the Basilica of San Albino, where there happened to be a wedding taking place:

The historic town was where the Gadsen Purchase was signed, making New Mexico part of the U.S. in 1854. Also, read in the campground link above as this is the location where several famous western outlaws used to stay. Billy the Kid was tried and sentenced to hang in the courthouse that was located across the plaza of the Old Mesilla Square. The old courthouse is now a gift shop.

It was also nice for us to see mountains that we have missed seeing for the last year and a half. Las Cruces is surrounded by mountains and we took this shot of the Organ Mountains - in daylight and again at sunset:

While walking around the clubhouse facility at the campground, we came upon this little remnant of the storm that hit here about a week ago:

Yes, it is snow.

It is 33 degrees outside this morning and is about the same as it was in Campbellsville - what's the deal? Of course, this is a much prettier part of the country and we plan to explore a little bit of the area today. The big difference between here and Campbellsville, weather wise, is that we can count on it to go up to about 65 during the day. It's nice to be back out west again. Happy New Year everybody...